How to Think Creatively, or Why Severed Fish Heads Sell
The session “How to Think Creatively,” didn’t offer too much insight into creative thinking. Rather, TaguchiNow founder Robert Cringely regaled the audience with examples of why shock value often works in marketing.
His big idea: The Taguchi method, a fancy version of multivariate testing, doesn’t work as it’s traditionally applied. The creative examples he showed tended to be counterintuitive, controversial, and meant to shock viewers, such as a pile of severed fish heads promoting travel in Cancun. These ads increased responses several times over. He calls them “interruptive images,” and he notes they not only motivate click-throughs but purchases. Still, I’m not convinced that the attitude expressed works for all companies, even if it would deliver a short-term sales boost.
